Having spoken to Les Searle at Dorset the owner of several full size Burrell road locos and Bodicea amongst others he showed me that full size three speed engines have the third gear carrier cut out to facilitate the removal of the crank by clearing the bearing housing. Having got really brave I have decided to give this one a try, now I should point out here that I take no credit for the actual machining of this item as that is far outside my skill level but Andy2 aka The Coleman has such skills and has helped me out.

It has been a complete success and the following pictures should explain it amply, at least this is true to type and in keeping with Burrells design. Also as the part that is under strain is where the gear engages with the drive gear it doesnt have any undue effect on the strength of the set up.

There’s been some comment recently about the difficulty of removing the crankshafts on the DCC because of the 3rd speed hub. One of our customer’s, who owns a number of full size engines, has given me some details of what Burrell actually did to overcome this. Basically all they did was to create a ‘cut out’ in the hub so that when it was at its lowest position it could be removed over the main bearing housing. I've created a drawing that should explain this better than my words. The dimensions given are not critical other than the length of the cut out needs to clear the casting and its depth is up to the inside face of the hub.

It really is a simple solution. I just wish I’d known about it during the design stages. As far as I can recollect, it didn't appear on the original drawings. The cut out would of course have been hidden by the gear when in neutral, so I didn't spot it when we were crawling all over Ex-Mayor.

Although not a necessity, I do think it would be a worthwhile modification, even at this late stage. Much better than removing the hub itself.